UNSC Army files: CLASSIFIED
by Alex Hawk
Summary: the stories of a unit during the final years of the human-covenant war, starting one month before the battle of Reach.
1. Always mind your surroundings

_**Okay this is my second fan fiction I've ever created (first halo one though) so if its crap don't hit me too hard in your reviews, please give me feedback and advice. Also my story will mainly focus on the very much overlooked forces of the UNSC ARMY and a fictional sector under their control.**_

**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**BUSINESS DISTRICT**

**JUNE 7, 2552**

**2300 HOURS**

Sergeant Alexander Grayson held his breathe as he looked down the scope of his M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. The city of New Jerusalem was all but destroyed; ant building over ten stories was in flames, half the city had been glassed and Covenant drop-ships loomed in the skies above. Grayson was in a ruined office building waiting for his squad. he spotted a small patrol of Unggoy lead by one Kig-Yar emerge over a pile of rubble. He aimed at the dark skirmisher's head; with enhanced eye-sight if he were to shoot one of the grunts first the bird-like alien would spot him for sure.

Grayson had been holed up at this rendez-vous point for about five hours now and figured it had been long enough, he pulled the trigger an with a loud crack the alien was down and the grunts were in a state of panic. He adjusted his aim and fired three more times, eliminating the rest of the patrol.

'Some Covenant would have heard that.' he thought to himself as he got up to leave. As he turned around he met the brunt force of a plasma repeater across the temple. His vision blackened for a moment as he stumbled to the ground again; had it not been for his helmet he would have been killed. Grayson looked up and through his concussion he could make out the figure of a Zealot class Sangheli as it rose it's arm for a final strike. The sergeant's heart raced as he attempted to grab his sidearm, only to see it had dislodged and slid across the room as he fell.

"Shit!" he said, but just then the elite's neck sprayed purple blood onto Grayson as a combat knife forced its way through. The Zealot coughed up about a pint of blood as it crashed to the ground.

"You always were one to let yourself get sucked into your scope, Al." said a man clad in black vacuum proof armor. Master Sergeant Michael Jones stood over the eight foot long body of the Elite wiping off his knife.

"Yeah, and you were always one for timely appearances _and_ disappearances." Grayson retorted. "Couldn't you have killed that thing before it hit me on the head?"

"Now, now, Al do you have any idea how hard it is to sneak up on someone who's already sneaking up on someone else.?" Jones said in a jokingly. "So, you planning on lying there all night, Sergeant?"

"Not if it means I got to be stuck with you." he commented as he pulled himself up.

"Okay "ice cube", but enough joking around." Jones said, reaching into his pack. "The whole squad's been trying to reach you on the radio for almost a day, your comms out or something?" He finished saying as he pulled out a radio head-set.

"No, but there's a Covenant jammer I spotted a few blocks south of here," he said, rejecting the offer he knew was coming. "thought about taking it out once some reinforcements arrived."

"Well, Grayson I'm the only help your gonna get on this one." said Jones.

"Why's that?" Grayson asked, confused.

"Akerson's taken control of our unit. He's sent most of the squad towards the city center towards the museums; apparently the Covenant really want in there."

"That areas close to the fallout of the glassing, on the complete other side of the city!" Grayson exclaimed.

"Yup and we gotta get there quick," said Jones, " I say we hit the jammer then call for a vehicle drop to get us down there."

"That's just what I was going to suggest, I'll lead sarge." Grayson said as the two picked up their rifles and step through a hole in the wall; out of the office and into the darkness of the night.

_**There it is my first chapter to this halo fan-fic please tell me what you think and what I need to work on to see if this is worth continuing, because more reviews= more chapters!**_


	2. Holding Position

_**Alright, I have decided to continue this fanfic after much consideration and reading others for some reference, as well as research on the Halo universe and fiction.**_

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**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**PLANETARY HISTORY MUSEUM**

**JUNE 7, 2552**

**2330 HOURS**

_East Entrance_

Corporal Steven Cervantes dove for cover as his previously occupied spot was showered with hot plasma. He quickly rolled behind a pile of crates that he and some other troops had set up earlier, clutching his MA37 assault rifle he popped his head over one of the crates and returned fire at the advancing covenant.

"Contacts have been engaged!" he shouted, as he eliminated 3 Jackals. Cervantes was firing from the recently fortified position of the Planetary History Museum's front steps, where he and his entire company had been sent to keep the covenant from whatever they were looking for. The Covenant were dead set on getting through as several squads came towards the museum from the main road, a pair of Mgalekgolo rounded a corner and pushed through the gunfire with their enormous shields.

"Eat shit and die, you E.T. mother fuckers!" Yelled an overzealous Private whom was firing at the hunters from behind the burned out shell of a car. "Come on, I have enough for every single one of ya!"

Cervantes watched the Private with a caution, as a Corporal he had been through the rigorous training and selection process of the UNSC Army Rangers, anyone whom was his rank or higher had to in his unit; they were all made to be just as good as ODSTs just without any of the fame. Unfortunately, those in the unit whom were not yet at the rank of Corporal the training would not be required, thus this private was most likely a damn rookie.

"Hold your bravado and get your head in the game before the Covenant take it off!" Shouted a Sergeant from another car a few yards to the right. Unlike the Corporal he was quiet and fired short-precise burst from his weapon. While there were two manned M247H heavy mounted machine guns on either side of the steps hosing down the large Covenant advance. "Machine gunners, adjust your fire take out those hunters before they break through our position, god dammit!" The two men shifted their fire and brought down the behemoths.

As one of the hunters fell a Zealot class Sanghelli wielding an energy sword leaped over its body and sprinted towards the museum. The elite dodged and avoided gunfire from most of the platoon and its high power shields absorbed any lucky shots, more than a few rangers met their end from the blade of pure plasma. Cervantes grabbed the M45 shotgun laying next to him and ran towards the roaring alien.

"Cover me!" he shouted as he sprinted down the steps. The Zealot jumped into the air pulling back its arm for a strike. When Cervantes fired his shotgun the elite's shield flickered and died, the force from the shot also caused the elite to falter as he completely missed his strike as it came down at Cervantes's side. Cervantes pumped the shotgun and prepared to fire a second time when the swung its arm knocking him to the ground. The Elite stabbed downward with its sword but Cervantes rolled out of the way and pulled his side arm from his waist and emptied an entire clip into the unshielded monster's head, the Zealot came down in a heap.

Without their leader the Covenant in front of the museum began to fall into disarray, grunts scattered in fear and the Jackals hesitated for a moment leaving their entire unit vulnerable.

"Alright Rangers open up on those bastards!" Shouted the Sergeant, every soldier was all too happy to comply and they began hosing down the aliens in the street. As the Covenant were systematically wiped out the soldiers let out a cheer. Cervantes scanned the street and saw nothing moving amongst the corpses, after he was satisfied that every covvie had a bullet hole in it sat back and took a drink from his canteen thankful for the moments reprieve, but he knew that it wouldn't be long before another wave approached.

"Sergeant, what's the status on the East entrance to the museum?" A voice crackled over the comm.

"We're green, sir minimal casualties on our end." The sergeant responded. "Any word on possible reinforcements sir?"

"Command cannot be reached at this time, sergeant, something is jamming our long range radio, were all on our own for now."

"Captain, permission to send a team to deal with that problem."

"Negative Sergeant, I already have part of my team missing right now and you need every shooter you have, just hold your position for now, Anderson out." The Sergeant let out a sigh before reloading his weapon and pointing it toward the street again, it was at this moment that he spotted a group of skirmishers sprinting down the street at high speed as well as a phantom approaching, undoubtedly carrying another large group of covenant.

"Hostiles approaching men, prepare to engage!"

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_West Entrance_

"Khan take out that wraith, now!" Captain Anderson shouted. Sergeant Ezra Khan complied and fired his M6 G/GNR Spartan laser at the enemy tank that was bombarding their position, as the tank exploded the smell of melting metal filled the air. Captain Anderson fired his SRS99 sniper rifle four times in quick succession bringing down a group of Jirahalnae.

He quickly ejected the empty magazine and slapped a new on into the rifle. Anderson began to grit teeth as more covenant riding ghosts turned the corner.

This was a really bad day for him; he and his squad had been dropped into New Jerusalem from the UNSC Army Cruiser _Nazareth_ to board a covenant carrier and steel whatever data that they found on board. Instead the operation had become a FUBAR situation since the moment they hit the ground, the squad separated when they had to adjust their course to avoid the wreckage of a destroyed orbital defense station. When he got out of his pod only Khan and Jones were in his vicinity; the rally point was overrun with covenant, two members of his squad were nowhere to be found, and long range communications were down.

"Jacobs, detonate the mines!" Anderson yelled, Staff Sergeant Ryan Jacobs pulled the trigger on his detonator making short work of the ghosts. Jacobs had been one member of the squad that Anderson initially could not locate; it was after he showed up that the squad was picked up to defend the museum. While Anderson was hesitant to abandon his mission but he agreed as he knew the soldiers would not last without back up. Master Sergeant Jones protested in heading to the museum without first searching for Grayson, Anderson told him to be quiet as he got his bearings to head towards the museum. However, after Anderson was finished Jones had vanished. Now he was sitting in front of a museum missing two squad mates and a mission that was likely going to be a failure.

A phantom flew in and began to drop more troops onto the street and west courtyard.

"Dammit, why can't I just get a brake today!" He yelled, firing his rifle several more times as covenant fell dead just as they exited the craft. Jacobs raised a M79 rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fired two rockets directly into the engines of the phantom sending it straight to the ground in a flaming wreckage before the squad.

"Hey, how's that for a break captain?" Jacobs said through the team's comm channel.

"Well, I have to admit it brings a smile to my face seeing the covenant burn like that." Anderson answered.

"Ryan, that still only counts as one kill!" Khan said through the comms.

"Oh that's bullshit, Ezra!" The two men's banter took Anderson's mind off of his frustration so he let his men joke for the moment. The men then reloaded their weapons set some trip mine around the perimeter and prepared for the next wave. The captain took a glance at his target locator something that his squad had been given for their troubles and to aide them with this mission but with out long range communications it was as useful as a rock. Rain started to fall and began to land on his helmet, as he watched the street he began to see shimmers where the rain seemed to stop in midair and go around. Anderson immediately straightened up and broadcast over the comm.

"Cloaked elites, Deltas! Spot them and take 'em down!" He ordered. Anderson looked down his rifles scope and fired.

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_**So that's it for this chapter, it obviously had more action to it then the other one so I hope you guys enjoyed it please review and give feedback!**_


	3. The blind shall see The deaf shall hear

_**Okay people this is chapter 3, I have to say I was surprised at how many hits this story had received but even more surprised that despite that there were no new reviews. Please write reviews people I need to know how to improve.**_

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**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**TTERRAB INDUSTRIES OFFICE**

**JUNE 7 2552**

**2345 HOURS**

Grayson and Jones had come within 3 blocks of the Tterrab Industries office when they saw a company sized group of covenant guarding a large, sleek, purple structure.

"There's the jammer, Jones." Grayson said, "I'll take up a sniper position so I can cover you."

"That's great and all but I'd prefer it if we did this quietly and your DMR doesn't exactly fit into that category." Jones responded. Grayson looked down at his M392, it was his baby, he had made a number of otherwise illegal modifications to it himself such as a double zoom scope with a laser dot, a widened barrel to fire higher caliber shots, and high capacity magazines for less reloads. The high caliber bullets made for more of a bang and that's what Jones was talking about, Grayson had made a design for a suppressor but hadn't yet begun to work on it.

"Well what did you have in mind then?" He asked

"I was thinking I could sneak around them, my suppressed M7 and M6 can take care of those that come too close without making too much noise."

"Then what about me, huh?" Grayson said, obviously annoyed with him. "You're just gonna go at it alone? Were a team, man! No lone wolf moves! No heroics! You know Noble team lost a member two months ago, because he decided to be a hero! You're not going in there without my cover!"

"Easy there, Al, I'm not stupid besides you will be covering me." Jones said in his usual calm voice. "Here, I got something for ya, happy fucking birthday." Jones tossed him a small metal box, inside Jones found a suppressor built to the exact specifications of his DMR design.

"How the hell did you get this?" said Grayson, not even taking his eyes of the suppressor.

"I read your diary pretty boy."

"So you looked at my design, nice. But my Birthday is 3 months from now and I'll still expect a present, buddy." Grayson said as he fixed the suppressor onto his rifle.

"In your dreams, that alone cost me 2300 credits." Jones joked back to him. "Now lets get to work, you get up on that terrace and watch my back, I'll move in once you're in position."

Grayson entered the building next to him, ran through the lobby and up 2 flights of stairs before reaching the terrace. From his perch he had a perfect view of the covenant as they walked across pavement and around plant placements. Grayson saw Jones's indicator on his HUD as he waited for Grayson's signal.

"I'm in position Mike, there's an Elite directly on the other side of your cover but he's walking away." Grayson said staring through his scope. "Give it a moment, three… two… one… okay, flank right, now."

Jones silently moved from cover to cover, always sticking to shadows, he came within ten feet of the jammer when he spotted an Elite Minor approaching it. He looked around and estimated he would be out of the rest of the groups line of sight when he took him down.

"Al, there's a minor in my path and from the looks of things he's gonna be standing by the jammer for a while I'm going to take him out silently."

"Hang on, it looks as though there's a small covenant patrol coming around the corner of the building." Grayson warned. "If you take him out first they'll see you. On my go I'm going to take out the patrol, but you need to take out your target at the same time otherwise he'll see he might alert the rest to our presence."

"Gotcha, ready when you are."

"Three… two… one…Go!" Grayson pulled the trigger to his DMR 3 times and each elite in the patrol went down, the high caliber bullets making their shields seem nonexistent. In the corner of his eye he could already see Jones plowing his combat knife into the neck of the earlier spotted elite minor. Grayson scanned the group of Covenant checking to see if they had been noticed, luckily the suppressor kept the engagement quiet as the aliens stood in the courtyard blissfully unaware that just thirty feet away four of their companions were leaking their brains onto the pavement.

"Beautiful, like a symphony." Said Jones as he pulled his knife out of the Elites neck. "Give me a moment to set the charges, make sure to take care of anyone who gets curious."

Grayson monitored the courtyard for a minute until Jones's marker made its way back towards him, Jones entered the building and within two minutes he was next to Grayson on the terrace.

"Alright, I gave those charges an extra kick to take out those bastards in the courtyard as well." Jones said with glee. "Now let's watch the fireworks and call for evac."

Jones retrieved the detonator from his pocket and pushed the button, fire erupted from the Tterrab building's courtyard incinerating everything in its path.

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**PLANETARY ORBIT, SERAPHIM VII**

**UNSC ARMY CRUISER **_**NAZARETH**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0000 HOUR**

Colonel Urban Holland anxiously paced about the bridge, he had dropped a group of DELTA-FORCE commandos into New Jerusalem in order to retrieve data from a Covenant carrier. The team was to radio command after regrouping on the surface, however, it has been six hours since the drop and there has been no contact from any ground forces in the city. Every thirty minutes for the past four hours Holland had been repeating the same message over the teams secure channel.

_Delta Team this is Delta Actual, if you are reading this respond and give a sitrep, over. I repeat Delta Team…_

Holland looked down at his watch "0000Hr" time for another attempt to hail the team. Holland approached the radio terminal put his hand on the broadcast button and spoke.

"Delta Team this is Delta Actual, if you are reading this give me a sitrep, over." He paused for a moment. "I repeat, this is-"

"Delta Actual this is Delta-1, I read you, sir." The radio crackled back to him. Holland let out a breathe of relief as he heard Anderson's voice through the radio.

"Delta-1 I need an update, what is the status of your mission?" Holland asked

"Sir, my squad is split as two of them are currently MIA, the rest of us have taken defensive positions around the Planetary History Museum to give support to the Rangers already here until reinforcements arrive." Anderson reported.

"Say again Captain, Army Rangers?" Holland asked, surprised.

"Yes, Colonel, 5th Ranger Battalion, Bravo Company." Anderson replied.

Rangers being assigned to the defensive of a museum was unusual. The Rangers were the Army's equivalent of ODSTs, they would be inserted by high altitude drops from the stratosphere in freefall wearing ballistic armor and jetpacks. Holland had originally requested the use of Rangers but was denied due to all units currently on active deployments to other sectors, with that he deployed Delta Force whom are already under his command as part of Special Warfare Group Three. He preferred to keep from using such resources when there were other possibly more urgent missions that they could be taking.

"Delta-1 reinforcements are coming to assist the Rangers, when they arrive you are to board one of the falcons and proceed to your primary objective. Do you copy?" Holland Radioed back.

"I copy sir. What about the missing members of my squad?"

"I'll have any forces in the area keep an eye out for them we'll find them if we can but you need to focus on your objective, Holland out." Holland sat down in his chair the Rangers puzzled him, why would HIGHCOM keep him out of the loop and what did the was it that the Covenant wanted in that museum?

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**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**PLANETARY HISTORY MUSEUM**

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0215 HOURS**

Even though Holland had promised reinforcements it had taken over two hours for them to show up. Three D77-TC Pelican drop-ships arrived carrying a large number of Army personnel it was also accompanied by a lone UH-144 Falcon. As the pelican dropped their occupants off Captain Anderson saw the Falcon Land and out stepped Alex and Mike sporting ash on their armor.

"How ya doin' there, captain?" Mike said. "We miss anything interesting?"

"From the looks of things, it was you guys who had an adventure." Anderson said. "Communications are back up you have anything to do with that?"

"Yes sir, that was us." this time it was Alex who spoke. "We took out a Covenant jammer in front of the Tterrab Industries building. This ash on us is from Mike here setting the charges to high, destroyed the entire block and nearly brought a building down on us."

"It was just some extra kick to take out the nearby Covenant." Mike said. His visor was polarized but both Alex and Anderson could tell he was smiling.

"Jones you need to watch how high you set charges especially when its danger close." Anderson lectured him. "One of these days your overpowered explosive are going to get you or someone else on the team killed."

"Alright sir, but hey we have a carrier to infiltrate." Mike said still retaining his calm upbeat attitude. "Look that Carrier is nearly 70 kilometers away lets get in our ride and head out."

"Okay Master Sergeant, I just need to notify Holland." Anderson said. He turned and walked a few paces before calling over his radio. "Delta Actual this is Delta-1 the team has regrouped and is Oscar Mike towards the Covenant carrier, Over."

"Delta-1 this is Delta Actual, I copy." Holland responded over the radio. "Good luck Deltas Holland out."

"Hey come on lets go captain!" Yelled Ryan as he and the rest of the squad were already aboard the falcon. Anderson Jogged over and hopped into a seat, he watched as the falcon took of leaving the museum behind disappearing in the sea of buildings.

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_**Hey guys I hoped that you enjoyed this one as well remember to review, its encouraging and it helps me get better, also post some ideas I may use them!**_


	4. Gabriel, Messenger Angel of God

_**Here we go chapter 4, we finally see the carrier and what it holds. Hope you enjoy it.**_

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**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT**

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0300 HOURS**

Captain Anderson flipped a small glowing chip around in his hand as he sat in the falcon. It was an AI mobile storage unit containing the "smart" AI, Gabrielle. Gabrielle was to be inserted into the carrier's onboard computer where she would then rip all available data then infect the Covenant battle-net with a virus to throw all their ships in the system into disarray.

Originally, when Anderson received the AI he also received upgraded armor with experimental technology. This would allow the AI to remain active in his helmet and interface with the UNSC battle-net from his armor to send and receive messages, however, Gabrielle was more of a strong willed AI. She was aggressive and had broken protocol on more than one occasion, Anderson was reluctant to have that running around inside his head.

"Five minutes to the carrier, Captain." The Pilot said over the Radio.

"Understood," Anderson said back. "Alright Delta, we're green!"

"HOOAH!" The entire squad replied.

"Hey Captain," Ezra said over the squad comm. "are you going to put in the messenger?"

"It would seem that I can't put that off any longer, huh."

"Well I guess she is kind of a manipulative bitch, …sir."

"Hooah to that, sergeant." The captain said as he finally inserted the chip into the port on the rear of his helmet.

"Interesting captain, I'm showing a significant lapse of time from when I was pulled from the Nazareth's systems to now." A slightly sarcastic female voice said.

"There were a few unforeseen complications." the Captain said

"There was a slight reaction in your body just now captain, you are lying." Gabrielle chimed back, "But, it is of little consequence, we have a carrier to board."

Anderson rolled his eyes and looked out the open side doors of the falcon, they had picked up two AV-14 Attack VTOL Hornet escorts, and they now flanked either side of the Falcon. It was good because even though Kahn and Jacobs manned the side turrets of the Falcon, they couldn't take out everything that found them interesting.

"Once we pass this last group of buildings we'll be in range of the Carrier!" The pilot chimed in again.

"Warning, I'm reading multiple units engaged in combat within the Carrier's airspace." Gabrielle broadcasted to the pilot.

She was right just as the Falcon swung around the last building, the squad went straight into an intense aerial engagement. The sky was filled with Banshees, Hornets, Falcons, Phantoms, and the occasional Pelican, all battling for control of the air-space, with plasma rockets and tracer bullets streaking across the dark sky. As the aerial column advanced towards the carrier the pilot twisted and spun the Falcon to avoid plasma fire, his flight skill was pure art, unfortunately the same could not be said for the pilot of the Hornet that protected the Falcon's right flank as it exploded from the plasma fire of an anti-aircraft Wraith. The Hornet's burning shell quickly fell hundreds of feet to the ground below, slamming into the ground and becoming a smoldering heap.

"Jesus Christ!" Yelled Kahn.

"Keep it together, Delta." Anderson said. "Pilot, what's your name soldier?"

"Chief Warrant Officer Juan Perez, sir!" He called back.

"Perez, get us to the Carriers grav-lift, we'll ride the stream all the way up."

"You got it sir, this Falcon's gonna catch it's prey, hooah."

"Hooah, Chief."

Chief Perez flew elegantly through the plasma fire as though he was the ace pilot from one of the old 20th Century films. He expertly avoided the flaming husk of a plummeting Phantom and brought the team in full swing around the anti-gravity stream. Anderson's heart jumped as he saw all that was around him and thought about what he was about to do.

"You have a significantly increased heart rate, captain." Gabrielle said, bringing Anderson back to reality.

"Well sometimes humans get a little scared over the crazy shit we do." Anderson retorted.

"Well, Captain, perhaps you should simply take a leap of faith." The AI cheerfully said to him. Anderson was slightly confused by Gabrielle's choice of words but decided not to dwell on it.

"On my mark Deltas!" He said as the team prepared to jump. "Three…two…one…Mark!" and with that the entire team leaped from the Falcon into the stream, they felt the affect of gravity for less than a second as they were each hoisted by their chests up into the Carrier's blinding light.

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**ARIA, CYRUS VII**

**HIGHCOM FACILITY DELTA-3**

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0840 HOURS**

Chief Warrant Officer Michelle Douglas stood at attention in her dress blue uniform as the general before her removed her ranks and replaced them with gold bars, as well as awarding her with the Bronze Star. She was a 2nd Lieutenant now and had a medal, but that brought her no happiness, she gave the general her obligatory salute and he returned it with his own. As she brought hr arm down it ached slightly, she had been surgically augmented with the ORION enhancements and after two months of healing in a hospital she still didn't feel like herself. There she stood with a group of other soldiers whom had been brought into Special Warfare Group Three, all having been recommended, selected, and eventually augmented to fit the needs of HIGHCOM.

The ceremony ended and the gathered soldiers dispersed, it was a sunny Saturday morning on Cyrus VII and most of the new special forces soldiers would use their last day off to go celebrate somewhere off base. Michelle, on the other hand, had no intention of joining them instead she quietly walked to her quarters and removed her uniform. As she took off her jacket she paused for a moment to look at the newly sown in patch. It was sky blue with a single up-pointed golden sword on it with three strikes of lightning going across it along with a single black tab above with the word "AIRBORNE" inscribed into it with gold letters, this was the patch of the Special Warfare Group 3 based on the old Special Forces patch of the US Army from the 20th-21st centuries on Earth. Michelle continued to stare at the patch until she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey kid, are you just going to sit there admiring that all day?" Said a female voice.

Michelle turned to see Captain Sara Sepulveda, she was a slender brunette whom had her hair tied in a bun, but also let a great deal of the hair near the front of her head hang loose. She was also wearing dress blues but sported a much larger amount of medals on her uniform as well as a particularly interesting patch. It was similar to Michelle's but instead of being sky blue it was blood red with a jet black sword that featured no lightning, and the tab above it had "AIRBORNE" written in the deep red color as well, this was the patch of Delta Force HIGHCOM's best soldiers second only to those in the Spartan programs.

"Captain, is there something I can help you with?" Michelle said with indifferent eyes.

"Well I was, wondering if you would accompany me to a bar off base for a drink." Sara said with sleazy cat- like eyes.

"I told you Captain, I'm not interested."

"And I'm telling you, its not healthy for you to be sulking along like this all the time!" Sara interjected, "I didn't want to do this but you've left me no choice."

"Why, what are you going to do?" Michelle asked extremely weary of the evil smile that was forming on the Captain's face.

"I am ordering you to be my escort off base, Lieutenant."

"You cannot be seri-" Michelle started.

"Do I make myself clear." Sara said authoritatively.

Michelle glared at Sara and reluctantly said, "Yes, Ma'am."

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**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**COVENANT CARRIER: **_**RELENTLESS RETRIBUTION**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0325 HOURS**

Captain Anderson effortlessly broke the neck of a Kig-yar Jackal and gently brought its body to the floor; he and his squad were quickly but stealthily moving through the carrier with relative ease, meeting very little resistance. With the majority of the Covenant forces from the Carrier either groundside or engaged in aerial combat against the humans outside the ship was only manned by a skeleton crew and a small defense force.

"Captain, I suggest we pick up the pace." Gabrielle said into the Captain's helmet.

"What, why?" Anderson asked.

"It would seem that a large number of Covenant ground forces are pulling back to this carrier." She said with a slight hint of urgency.

"Dammit, well things had to turn to shit sooner or later." Anderson said, with Murphy's law in his head. "Team double time it! We need to rip that data as soon as fucking possible!"

"Yes sir!" they responded in unison. Stealth was now completely out the door, the squad moved through the carrier clearing each room in their path leaving large amounts of Covenant bodies in their wake. Soon they reached the bridge manned by a few Sangheli Ultras and a large number of Unggoy.

"Cook 'em." Said the Captain as he raised his own MA37.

The covenant heard the doors closed and only had time to turn around as the were met with a hail of bullets and a blast from a Spartan Laser. All that was left of the aliens was charred and pulped flesh. Captain Anderson approached a control pad until he reached something that looked remotely like a port that he could slide Gabrielle into. He yanked the chip from his head and placed it into the console.

"Well it certainly is nice to be in a place that's not so cramped." Gabrielle said as she materialized herself as a hologram on the console. She took on the appearance of a female angel sporting blue luminescent hair and eyes and angelic clothing. "Hmm, interesting there seems to be a Covenant AI in here with some rather intriguing abilities."

"Will it be a problem?" Anderson asked.

"Hardly, I've already deconstructed it and taken them for my own, I've also gained an understanding for the Covenant language." She said.

"You know Gabrielle, you creep me the fuck out sometimes." Ryan said as he looked back from the door he was guarding.

"Thank you, Sergeant." Said Gabrielle her hologram wearing a cheeky smile on her face. "Now to steal data and deliver a message of mayhem."

Gabrielle's hologram grew bright and changed color several times. Her holographic body seemed to be in a state of euphoria, she arched her back her arms and legs seemed to lock in place, her eyes were wide open and holographic wings sprouted from her back.

"Christ, don't enjoy it too much, Gabby." Michael said as he watched the display before him. This got him a nudge from Grayson whom was attempting to get him to pay attention to the door he was supposed to be guarding.

Soon Gabrielle's hologram dimmed and she returned to normal.

"Well, that was… exhilarating." She stated

"Okay Gabby, I'm just going to ask it flat out." Kahn said. "Did you just have sex with the covenant battle-net?" After he said this Jacobs promptly smacked Ezra on the back of his head.

"Ow, hey! It was just a simple question!" Ezra said.

"That I think I'll leave to your imagination Sergeant." Gabrielle chirped with a sly smile. "Okay Captain, yank me."

Anderson pulled the chip out of the port and the hologram disappeared from the display, Cautiously he placed the chip into his helmet's rear port.

"I know your wondering about it too, Captain." Gabrielle said as she came to life inside his helmet.

"…And?"

"The answers no Captain, I simply don't have many occasions when I can conduct such a large number of high level calculations at once. It was enjoyable as well as exhausting."

"Sounds like computer sex to me." Said Kahn who apparently had been eavesdropping.

"Congratulations, Sergeant, you just earned yourself a week's worth of latrine duty." Said Captain Anderson. Ezra swore under his breath as the group moved through the Carrier. Anderson Switched to his long range radio to contact Holland.

"Delta-1 to Delta Actual, primary objective is complete exhilarating the carrier now."

"Delta team this is Colonel Ackerson I am commandeering your unit you are now tasked with the destruction of that carrier." Replied the radio.

"Sir? What happened to Holland?" Anderson retorted

"Captain you will go to the carriers Aft hangar bay and rendezvous with Rangers who are delivering a compact nuclear device, over." Ackerson said completely ignoring Anderson's question.

"I'm sorry sir I'll need to run this by Command-"

"Colonel Holland will be briefed, you belong to ONI now, boy." Ackerson interrupted

"Ackerson, go fuck yourself." Gabrielle suddenly chimed in before she cut off the comms.

* * *

_**And that's All I have for today I promise that the random break in the middle with Michelle is relevant. review, I need feedback not just views.**_


	5. Retribution & Forgiveness

_**Okay people I have calmed down a little but I did get a few reviews so I'm a little happy (Even though it was only two). I now welcome you to the real chapter of Retribution, Forgiveness.**_

* * *

**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**COVENANT CARRIER: **_**RELENTLESS RETRIBUTION**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0345 HOURS**

"WHAT THE FUCK, GABRIELLE?" Captain Anderson yelled, he was ready to pull the AI out of his head right then and there. "Have you gone rampant?"

"Relax Captain, I am still loyal to the UNSC." Gabrielle retorted, "I have every intention in aiding you and those incoming Rangers in the destruction of this carrier."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it, Gabs." Jones added in through the team's channel.

"Seriously, why did you cut off Ackerson like that." Anderson demanded.

"A friend of mine does not view Ackerson as completely trustworthy." Gabrielle said.

"And just who is this friend of yours?"

"An AI whom I trust above anyone else."

"Great." Anderson said sarcastically, he wanted to press Gabrielle more on the matter but decided against it, after all a Covenant Carrier was hardly the place to do it.

The squad spent the next two minutes in silence as they headed to the hangar, it was only broken when Gabrielle spoke right before they entered the hangar bay.

"Warning, Covenant air-support has arrived and they are reclaiming the air-space around the Carrier at an alarmingly fast pace."

"How bad is it?" Anderson said as they passed through the doors.

"Bad." Grayson said as he stared through the hangar's shield. Outside they could see the UNSC forces being completely decimated by the Covenant.

"Jesus." Ezra said as he saw the destruction before him.

"Captain," Michael spoke up, "a friendly gunship is pushing through." He was right, Anderson could see an AC-220 "Vulture" barreling towards the carrier at an extremely high speed, cutting through plasma fire.

* * *

**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**CARRIER AIR-SPACE**

**AC-220 GUNSHIP, CALLSIGN: **_**BLOODHAWK**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0350 HOURS**

"Why the fuck do I volunteer for everything?" Corporal Steven Cervantes said aloud.

"Because, Cervantes, Rangers lead the way!" Said the sergeant manning one of the Vulture's guns. There were several rangers in the belly of the craft, they all volunteered to safely deliver the nuke to the Carrier to blow it out of the sky. Cervantes just couldn't believe how ridiculous it was, after they had spent so much time defending the museum it had turned out that a group of Zealots had already made it inside and gotten what the covenant were looking for. It was the Rangers' job not to let them get off planet with it.

The Craft lurched several times as the pilot maneuvered to avoid incoming fire, however despite his efforts the Vulture shook violently as the ship took a heavy salvo from an AA Wraith.

"Hey man, you're supposed to avoid enemy fire!" One of the Rangers yelled.

"You just shut up and keep them off my back." The pilot shouted back. A moment later the Vulture took another round, this time near the cockpit.

"Ah, fuck." the pilot yelled as he was hit with shattered glass.

"Cervantes, check the pilot!" The sergeant yelled as he continued firing. Steven stumbled his way to the cockpit as the Vulture lurched from one side to the other, when he reached the pilot the man was bleeding profusely with glass shards in his right arm and chest, along with that his helmet's visor was cracked.

"God dammit," The pilot said removing his helmet, he was a light skinned man who looked to be in his fifties, he licked his lips and right after he did so he spat blood onto the floor. "Doesn't look like I'm gonna make it through this one, eh? No matter, gotta get you boys to that carrier."

"Cervantes! What's the pilot's status?" The sergeant yelled. Before Steven could answer the craft was hit simultaneously by two banshee fuel rod cannons, one in the side and the other at the cockpit. There was a large explosion in the rear killing all the Rangers while the explosion in the cockpit fried the pilot and threw Cervantes to the floor. Immediately the Vulture dipped and began to plummet.

"Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" Cervantes shouted as he pulled himself up and grabbed the controls. He had minimal control of the craft but he managed to pull up and bring the gunship into the Carrier's hangar with a crash.

* * *

**NEW JERUSALEM, SERAPHIM VII**

**COVENANT CARRIER: **_**RELENTLESS RETRIBUTION**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0352 HOURS**

"Get down!" Anderson shouted to his squad, instantly everyone dove for cover as the Vulture crashed into the hangar.

"Jesus, you think anyone's alive in there?" Jacobs said as they approached the gunship. It was black with plasma burns, had the cockpit's windshield blown off, exposing a charred body, and the craft itself was burning.

"Jones, Grayson, check for survivors." Anderson ordered, as the two began to approach the cockpit a single Ranger stumbled out to the floor, immediately Grayson ran to him while Jones went on to the craft.

"Are you alright?" He asked, the visors transponder listed him as Corporal Steven Cervantes.

"Yeah, I'm fucked up, but I can fight." Cervantes responded through his damaged helmet comm.

"Sir, the rest of the Rangers are dead, same for the pilot." Jones called from the AC-220. "The nuke looks like we can still use it though."

"Alright, Jones you set it's timer for two minutes, Ryan you see that spirit drop-ship?" Anderson said

"Yeah, boss?" Ryan said.

"We're gonna ride it outta here."

"Captain I suggest you let me fly the craft by interfacing with it's systems." Gabrielle spoke.

"No I'll let Ryan handle it." The Captain said, he wasn't ready to trust Gabrielle with the team's lives just yet, and the stunt with Ackerson didn't help that much.

Jacobs headed into the cockpit of the Spirit while Kahn released the docking clamps on the ship, Grayson then helped Cervantes into the ship followed closely by Anderson. Jones jogged from the Vulture to the Spirit and handed something to the Captain.

"There you go, sir, that will initiate the countdown and allow you to monitor the nuke's status." Michael said to Anderson.

"Good work, sergeant." Anderson said as the spirit began to take off. He looked down and pushed the button but was met with an error message instead of a countdown, at that moment Anderson's heart sank. This was not happening, he was about to finish his mission with his squad completely intact and stick it to the Covenant, and the detonator had just taken a shit on him. "God dammit, the detonator's fried, someone's gonna have to detonate the nuke manually."

The squad sat there in disbelief not knowing what to do. Alex was about to stand when he saw Master Sergeant Michael Jones pull out his combat knife, at this moment Alex Grayson had his first good look at the blade. It wasn't a standard issue knife, in fact it was a kukri and engraved on the blade were the words "Talio Eternus", it was Latin for "Eternal Retribution", Jones walked over to Alex and handed him the blade and dog tags.

"Give it to someone you deem worthy." Michael said to him before running to the cockpit, Soon the ship began to accelerate out of the hangar.

"Jacobs!" The Captain shouted, "What's going on over there?"

"Its Jones sir he's rigged the controls I can't stop the ship!" Ryan called back.

"Sorry guys, but I knew you'd try to stop me if I told you what I was doing." Jones said over the squad-comm.

"Master Sergeant, just what the hell are you doing?" Anderson responded, slightly panicking.

"Making sure this nuke goes off, sir. Also Grayson, remember what I said."

The Spirit continued out of the hangar and flew through the plasma fire streaking across the night sky, soon it was far from the carrier and the Covenant and that's when the Relentless Retribution exploded in a flash of blue and white light along with all the Covenant air forces. As the Spirit shook from the shockwave Grayson looked down at the kukri again, he flipped it over to see "Venia Eternus", Latin for "Eternal Forgiveness".

* * *

_**That's the end of this chapter, and I swear if you don't have any comments on Michael death I'm gonna be pissed. I had a serious emotional dilemma about killing him, so you guys had better review otherwise he died for nothing.**_


	6. Unforgotten

_**READ THIS!**_

_**Okay so I've calmed down and decided not to be an ass and just continue my story, but I would still like you guys to leave at least one review on my story so that I may improve my writing skill.**_

_**Also if you skipped over chapter five because of the rant then go back to it, I replaced it with the real chapter, once you're done with that then come and read this.**_

_**Now, Enjoy.**_

**PLANETARY ORBIT, SERAPHIM VII**

**UNSC ARMY CRUISER: **_**NAZARETH**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0630 HOURS**

Colonel Holland walked into the briefing room to see Delta Team rise obligatorily to his arrival.

"At ease, Delta." He said giving them the okay to sit down. "Captain, I've read your mission report. The loss of Delta-2 is unfortunate, however, the primary objective was completed and therefore the mission was a success."

"Sir, I take full responsibility for Master Sergeant Jones's death." Anderson said. Out of his armor Anderson had the appearance of a man of African-American descent, he looked to be in his early forties, and his face bore a slight scowl to it due to the years of stress he had experienced.

"Anderson, no amount of regret can change the past. Jones acted on his own and that led to his death, you are not at fault here." Holland returned. "Now, we must discuss the matter of the Ranger presence and Ackerson's interference. I understand that there is currently a ranger in the ship's med-bay. Did he give you any information?"

"No sir, but that's just because we haven't asked him anything, yet." Staff Sergeant Ryan Jacobs said. Out of his armor Jacobs appeared to be a Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes, his age seemed to be early thirties. "He's only a Corporal, so whatever he knows I don't think it will be too much."

"I agree with Staff Sergeant Jacobs, Colonel." Gabrielle materialized herself in the briefing room. "A soldier of such rank would not have sufficient intel to answer all of our questions, regardless of his Ranger status."

"Thank you, Gabrielle, but I think I'll check on him anyway." Holland said standing from the table. "Gentlemen, the Covenant have been obliterated from this system, that means our job's done here. We're going to Cyrus VII, it's going to take two weeks to get there, but, once we do you guys can get yourself some R&R. Soon as you're ready report to the Cryo-bay and get into your pods, dismissed." With that the squad left the room and Holland headed for the med-bay.

"Don't think this means that you don't owe me that Latrine duty, Kahn." Anderson said as the squad parted ways in the corridors.

"Yes, sir." Ezra said dropping his head as he walked away. Kahn was of Middle-Eastern descent, having dark hair and eyes, as well as relatively tan skin. He was 5ft 10" and reasonably well built his age was about 29 years old. He continued down the hall and disappeared behind a bulkhead.

"Grayson, How are you holding up?" Anderson looked to the youngest member of the squad. Grayson was young but had a deceptive appearance, he was another African-American, lighter skinned then Anderson but stood taller than him at 6ft 2", he had an extremely well maintained body, and always carried a serious face, giving him a very imposing appearance, well beyond that of any 27 year old.

"I'll be fine, sir." Grayson said looking to the floor, he was still clenching Jones Dog-tags in his hand. Before the Captain could ask anything else, Alex left for his quarters.

Anderson watched the young Sergeant head down the corridor and through a set of doors before disappearing from sight.

_Med-Bay_

Corporal Cervantes sat on a bed as the doctor treated him for plasma burns, three broken ribs, a pulled calf muscle, and a minor concussion. He had been put on a few pain-killers by the doctor but he was still completely coherent when Holland walked into the room.

"Colonel, sir." Cervantes said as he jumped up from his seat.

"At ease, Ranger, no need to stand when you're in that condition." Holland said, waving for him to sit down. "I'm just here to ask you a few questions."

"I'll help in any way that I can, sir." Cervantes said.

"Good to hear. Now, the Rangers were under the direct command of Colonel Ackerson for the duration of this mission?" Holland asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know the details of your mission, if so then what were they?"

"The Covenant were looking for something in the museum, some kind of artifact. All I know is that ONI wanted us to stop them from getting it. So we were dropped in from high altitude out of a D77-TC as usual."

"…And the carrier demolition?"

"Well, the Covenant managed to find something and were on their way out. Ackerson didn't want them to get off world with whatever it was that they got."

"Colonel," Gabrielle interrupted, "We have an inbound Pelican from the UNSC Frigate _In Amber Clad. _It would seem that Colonel Ackerson is onboard it."

"Send a small detail to greet him, and stall him as well I need more time." Holland ordered.

"Yes, Colonel."

For the short time that Holland was able to question Corporal Cervantes further, he was unable to obtain any significant information. When Ackerson finally did enter the Med-Bay Holland had finished and was waiting for him.

"Holland, I've come for my Ranger." Ackerson said demandingly as he walked into the room.

"That's fine Ackerson, I just have a few questions for you." Holland said, with a firm voice as he glared at Ackerson.

"I do not have time for games, Colonel." Ackerson stated.

"And neither do I." Holland said, unyielding. "You commandeered my unit twice during their mission without my knowledge, despite the fact that you already had Rangers at your disposal."

"The reasons of my actions do not need to be explained to you, Holland." Ackerson said with a serious scowl on his face. "What I had the Rangers doing is strictly on a 'need to know' basis. However, the actions of your AI need explaining!" Ackerson spat.

"Insubordination and interfering with an ONI operation, I could have that construct of yours purged!"

"I think you'll find me pretty hard to kill, Colonel" Gabrielle said as she materialized. "Now, I suggest that you leave this ship before the security personnel deem you unstable, and have to lock you in one of the holding cells."

"Just you wait, Holland, THIS WILL COME BACK TO YOU!" Ackerson yelled, his face turning bright red as he stormed out of the Med-Bay.

"Perhaps its not best to push him, Gabrielle." Holland said as he went into the corridor.

"I simply, made him aware of consequences for rash actions." She retorted.

"I just hope you're aware of the consequences of your rash actions, Gabby."

"I always am, sir."

"Good, now set a course for Cyrus VII. As soon as Ackerson's off the _Nazareth_ we're leaving."

"Understood."

**ARIA, CYRUS VII**

**NORTH PLAZA**

**JUNE 8 2552**

**1800 HOURS**

Lieutenant Michelle Douglas had been dragged around the city of Aria all day by Captain Sara Sepulveda, whom had been tireless in attempting to get Michelle to enjoy it. Now they were sitting in a bar where there were several other military personnel, albeit most of them were Marines, Sara was finishing her fourth glass of Vodka and Michelle was staring into the glass of her second beer.

"Hey, kid, how do you like this place?" Sara asked as she brought her glass down. She was wearing black cargo pants with combat boots, a black Airborne T-shirt and jacket of the same color.

Michelle didn't respond to the question instead she just stayed silent and continued to stare at her beer. Michelle was shorter than Sara but could have passed for her sister having similar facial features, her hair she had kept relatively short at the back while her bangs were disproportionately long compared to the rest of her hair, and she wore an outfit similar to Sara. Captain Sepulveda leaned forward as she glanced at Michelle, the Lieutenant was wearing two sets of Dog-Tags around her neck as well as having three more linked onto her belt.

"How much longer are you going to going to hold onto their deaths, Michelle?" Sara said. "You can't stay like this." Michelle didn't answer, and just continued to sit there silently.

"Fine, don't talk to me about it, I'm going to the restroom." Sepulveda got up from the bar and disappeared down a hallway.

"I'm serious, man, my brother's a Ranger he told me himself." Michelle could hear a drunk Marine on the other side of the room.

"You're shitting me, right? There's no way that happened." Said the one he was talking to.

"What's going on?" Another marine asked him.

"Well I heard from my brother, in the Rangers, that a few months back, when the Covenant attacked Hermes in the Olympus System, that there was one squad that went AWOL half-way through the night." He continued. "They didn't respond to the hails on the radio, didn't show up at Rendezvous-points, nothing."

"How do you know they weren't just dead?" One of the marines asked.

"Because other teams had seen them, they were still combat effective." The marine said. "Anyway, after missing for the majority of the defensive operation they show up at the evac site after losing two members of their squad. As their bird's leaving the city they get shot down and caught in the glassing."

"Jesus, I guess karma caught up with those deserters." One of them said.

"That's just the thing about two weeks later one of them calls for Evac from the city, and they go get her."

"What?"

"Yeah, word is she left the others in her squad to die."

"What a bitch." One of them said, and with that he received a beer glass shattering across the side of his face. The other marines turned to see Lieutenant Michelle Douglas standing there glaring at them.

"Why you crazy, bitch." One of them said as he rushed her. He swung wide at her which she easily dodged and delivered a punch to his stomach then sweeping his legs from under him. Several more marines attacked her and soon the entire room had become part of their brawl, for Michelle each of her attackers seemed to move in slow motion as her augmentations sped up both her mind and body. She jumped and dodged the attacks of the marines as she fought them. Despite her advantages, Michelle found herself surrounded by the angry Devil-Dogs.

"You're through now, you whore!" Said the one whom she had thrown then glass at, he had pulled out an M6 pistol. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bottle of Vodka slammed into his hand causing him to drop the weapon. As he looked to the right to see where it had come from, his face was met with the boot of Captain Sara Sepulveda as she kicked him.

The other marines were stunned for a moments as their companion fell to the ground, as they were pulled back to reality as Sara jumped from a table and kicked a man in the chest. The two continued to fight until the sound of a shotgun firing was heard.

"You two, get outta my bar now!" It was the owner he was pointing a military grade shotgun at the brawlers as he said this. "And the rest of ya need to calm the fuck down!"

Douglas and Sepulveda promptly left the bar, outside it had began to rain hard and it was a mile to the nearest transportation hub. As soon as they were a few blocks from the bar Sara threw Michelle to the wall and pinned her there.

"LIEUTENANT, JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" She yelled at her. Michelle only gave her an indifferent stare, as the rain made her bangs stick to her wet face, Michelle glanced down at her Dog-Tags for a moment before meeting Sara's eyes again. Sara noticed her gaze at the Dog-Tags before screaming again.

"THEY'RE DEAD MICHELLE!" Sara screamed at her, their faces extremely close. "NO AMOUNT OF GUILT OR FIGHTING WILL CHANGE THAT! YOU BETTER STRAIGHTEN YOURSELF OUT, BECAUSE I CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS!" With that Captain Sepulveda stormed down the street.

Michelle stood there against the wall for a moment before she sank to the ground, all the while staring into the space in front of her. She then reached up to the second set of tags around her neck gripping them tightly, as she shed a single tear.

**SLIPSPACE**

**UNSC CRUISER:**_** NAZARETH**_

**JUNE 8 2552**

**0730 HOURS**

Captain Anderson was preparing for cryo-sleep he was that last on board who hadn't gone into their pod, he was undressing when Gabrielle manifested in front of him.

"Gabrielle, what do you need?" Captain Anderson said.

"Nothing, Captain, I am simply here to inform you that your second in command with be rejoining the team upon your arrival on Cyrus VII." Gabrielle said nonchalantly.

"Anything else I should know about?"

"Yes, you are also receiving a new squad mate, whom will also be joining us on Cyrus VII."

"What can you tell me about them?"

"I've worked with this person before and they will be an invaluable addition to the team." Gabrielle finished before disappearing again.

"Looking forward to it." Anderson said as he stepped into his pod.

_**Okay, that is chapter six, I want to know what you guys think of the two characters Sara and Michelle. Please leave a review and share your thoughts.**_


	7. Remembrance

_**Sorry that I haven't updated in a while everybody, College has begun so it has occupied a lot of my time.**_

_**I feel that I should explain a few things. I modeled the UNSC Army from the current US Army, which currently has its own ships, planes, ground troops, intelligence branch, and 3 different levels of special forces. That said I hope it has cleared things up a bit.**_

* * *

_Three months ago_

**HERMES, OLYPUS SYSTEM: PLANETARY ORBIT**

**UNSC ARMY FRIGATE **_**VIGILANCE**_

**MARCH 25, 2552**

**1930 HOURS**

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Patton sat in the briefing room, his XO Major Austin Bridgewater sat to his right, while the Command Sergeant Major sat to his left. The rest of the chairs at the table were occupied by the Captains of the respective companies of the 3rd Ranger Battalion.

"Rangers, as you know the planet below us has come under siege by the Covenant." He spoke. "The UNSC Air Force is fighting tooth and nail in the skies but has not yet gained air superiority in several cities and thus the Army cannot land its conventional troops into these cities, that's where we come in." The Lt. Col motioned to Major Bridgewater who then brought up the image of the planet's surface where four cities were highlighted.

"The Army has set up staging areas outside of each city, companies Alpha through Delta will each drop into a city to clear a path for the army to move in." The Major said. "Alpha Company will drop into Agape, Bravo to Eros, Charlie to Philia, and Delta to Storge. Return to your companies and prepare to drop, roll call in the hangar in 30 minutes."

* * *

**Alpha Co. 1****st**** Platoon Barracks**

Platoon leader Lt. Miguel Roque, a young Spanish man of 28 years, strapped into his Ranger Aerial Drop armor, (RAD) for short, it looked very similar to the armor the Marine ODSTs wore. The cosmetic differences were the full VISR AIR ASSAULT helmet, PARA shoulder pieces, and HALO chest pieces all with the urban camo pattern.

The technological differences were a whole other story, the Ranger insertions were freefall from heights of 102,000 feet or more, four minutes of straight falling at super sonic speeds. Each individual Ranger would break the sound barrier and could only slow down through the use of their Jet Packs, so the armor was vacuum sealed and pressurized, and carried armor hard enough for shuttle reentry.

Roque looked up to see his Platoon Sergeant walk into the room. It was Sergeant 1st Class Samuel DeLong, he was at least 30 years old and of French descent. DeLong had not donned his armor and was wearing his standard issue ACU (Army Combat Uniform) with the sleeves rolled up. His exposed bicep showed the Ranger Tattoo, a black hooded angel carrying a scythe with the words "Sua Sponte" Latin for "Of Their Own Accord".

In the corner sat the leader of 1st squad, and probably the largest Ranger in the company, Sergeant Victor Sanders, he was also about 30 years old and 6ft 5. He was completely at home on the battle field preferring to use some of the heavier weapons, right now he was placing a battery pack into his M6 G/GNR Spartan laser. Sanders looked up from his work to see the Platoon's sniper team, Michelle and Rachel Douglas.

Michelle was three years older than her sister Rachel and was fiercely protective of her. When Rachel joined the Rangers as a sniper Michelle somehow managed to make sure that she would be placed in the same unit. While being an excellent sniper herself CWO Michelle was also very proficient in stealth and close quarters combat, her tendencies to go off alone had made her 1st Platoon's lone wolf. Rachel was a Corporal, she didn't have the same loner disposition as her sister and was much more open but always stuck to Michelle's side. Rachel was armed with a SRS 99 sniper rifle and a silenced M6 magnum pistol, Michelle carried a M392 DMR along with a magnum identical to her sister's. The two sister sat down, silent simply waiting for what to do next, when the Captain entered the room.

"ATTEN-TION!" Yelled one of the Rangers, as they all moved into order.

"At ease." The captain said, resulting in men relaxing slightly. "We'll be dropping into the city of Agape in 20 minutes, our Company has been given the task of clearing a path for the 44th Armored to enter the city."

"Means of insertion sir, SOEIVs or Stratosphere HALO drop?" One Ranger asked.

"HALO drop, because we're Rangers and we lead the way, hooah." The captain responded.

"HOOAH!" The entire platoon shouted.

"1st platoon you will capture the east bridge while 2nd platoon will capture the west bridge." The captain continued "The Covenant are already groundside so expect heavy resistance, dismissed."

* * *

**Hangar bay 2000 hrs**

"FALL IN!" The Sergeant Major shouted in the busy hangar bay, the Rangers immediately formed up into their respective platoons and companies. They were all fully armored and had fully primed Jet Packs for the drop.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you know the Covenant have invaded Hermes. Well we're here to get 'em of our lawn, hooah." The Sergeant Major said.

"HOOAH!" The entire battalion roared.

"Now get out there, and lead the way!" And with that the rangers jumped into the pelicans; each had an extended troop carriage to house the large Ranger platoons. The eight pelicans left the _VIGILANCE _2 by 2 formations headed to the four cities.

**Agape Air Space 110,000 ft**

"Okay boys, we are nearing the drop zone, I'm opening the rear hatch now." the pilot said over 1st platoon's comm channel. Lieutenant Roque's stomach lurched as the door opened and he saw the dark sky and the curvature of the planet below, he had done six HALO drops at altitudes like this before but it was something he could just never get used to.

"Check equipment!" He shouted back over his shoulder. The Rangers checked each others gear and in unison shouted "Good to go!" within 45 seconds of the command.

"Alright boys we're here jump on my mark!" the pilot said.

Miguel steadied himself.

"3..."

His heart rate began to pick up.

"2..."

He looked to his side at Sgt DeLong, who gave him a nod.

"1..."

Miguel took a glance at his sniper team, Rachel nodded while Michelle gave him a thumbs-up.

"Mark!" the pilot shouted.

Miguel ran to the end of the troop bay and jumped, he let himself relax as he fell towards the planet below. The four minute period of freefall had always brought a sort of serenity to Lieutenant Roque; everything was chance out of his control, and he felt almost non-existent. He was always taken in by the beauty and horror of what was around him as he fell; the stars, the sleek covenant ships, the majesty of the planet in his sights, the plasma streaking across space, the glow of the planet as it's sun bathed it in light, the cities below burning, everything was surreal to him as he fell.

Miguel was brought back to reality as he finally began to feel the heat from the speed of his descent. His HUD beeped signaling him to activate his Jetpack.

"Rangers, full burn now!" he shouted. The platoon activated their jet packs as the city came into view. They were coming down onto the city's uplift reserve.

"Sir, we have a little Covenant problem." Samuel said through the comms. Miguel looked down to see a small Covenant encampment with a unit of Kig-yar, Unggoy, and a small number of Sanghelli.

"Rangers, choose your cushion." Miguel said as he set his sights on the Major that seemed to be in charge of the group. As he came within range the lieutenant drew his pistol, the Major heard the jet pack and looked up, he was greeted by the boot heel of Lieutenant Roque (which was still hot) along with three round from his M6 straight to the face at point blank range.

The jackals and grunts watched with complete disbelief as the Elites were all unexpectedly taken out by the Ranger's elaborate entrance. Miguel stepped off the corpse of the Elite he just killed and fired two shots into the nearest grunt.

"Platoon, Engage the enemy!" he shouted.

* * *

_**Again I'm really sorry that it took me this long to update, things have been really hectic with College, and my non-stop videogame playing for ideas (as well as my outright refusal to do anything until I had finished Gears of War 3 on Insane difficulty.) But yeah I have the next few chapters planned out so it shouldn't be too long before more updates.**_


	8. Hercules Boulevard

**_Hey guys here's_ _something nice to go along with your thanksgiving meal a new chapter after over a month. This is late because of my being distracted with all the games that came out this month. (Halo: CE Anniversary, Battlefield 3, MW3, Skyrim) you guys know the deal_**

* * *

**HERMES, OLYMPUS SYSTEM**

**AGAPE**

**MARCH 25, 2552**

**2005 HOURS**

* * *

**West Business District**

Captain Theodore Staten shrugged off his depleted jet pack and looked up to the sky. The space battle overhead was clear as day, the colorful plasma streaking through the void igniting the UNSC ships as they struggled to return fire. Staten himself was standing on the rooftop of some bank's corporate office building, he had landed with 2nd Platoon and were preparing to head out.

"Sir, we're ready to move." Said 1st Lieutenant Emma Jacobs.

"Good, once I've contacted 1st Platoon we'll make our way to the bridge." Staten replied

"Yes, Captain." The Lieutenant said before she walked off to her Platoon Sergeant.

"Lt. Roque, this is Captain Staten, respond."

"I read you, sir." Roque responded, the sound of gunfire could be heard through the radio along with his voice.

"Roque what is your current situation? Over."

"My platoon and I have landed in the Uplift Reserve on the East side of the city we are currently engaging hostiles, small encampment we're gonna clear it out before we head to the bridge."

"Copy that, see you at the rendezvous." The captain then shouldered his MA37 and turned to 2nd Platoon. "Alright Rangers, we're Oscar Mike!"

* * *

**Uplift Reserve 2010 Hours**

A Kig-yar sniper glanced from behind it's cover for a moment to check for targets and promptly received a bullet to its left eye. It was a full slaughter the Covenant troops at the encampment had no coordination what-so-ever without any of their leaders, the Rangers were having great success in their clearing of the camp.

Miguel Roque took cover by the remains of a Covenant Sniper nest that had been blown to pieces and fell to the ground. What was left of the enemy company had fallen back into a structure that appeared to be one of the Reserve's rest stops. Jackals and Skirmishers fired from the windows of the structure but more than a few fell from the shots of the platoon's snipers.

A Ranger approached the small building from the west side wielding an M45 shotgun, he passed two windows firing into them both killing some Jackals and grunts. Just as he neared the door it swung open with four Jackals side by side marching out with their shields in front while firing their plasma pistols through the small openings. The soldier was cooked in an instant, and his burning corpse fell to the ground.

"Fuck!" Lt. Roque swore under his breath as his platoon suffered its first casualty of the day. "Sanders, take those fucking vultures out!" he yelled into the comm.

"Got 'em." Victor said as his Spartan Laser discharged and blew through the group of covenant. Immediately following this there were a few more detonations from inside the structure and the entire thing then caved in on itself killing the last of the aliens.

"Form up!" Miguel called, with that the remainder of the platoon came towards his position. "Alright we need to get to the East bridge and link up with the 44th Armored," Roque stopped for a moment to check his visor's map. "The bridge is about five kilometers from here so it shouldn't take too long, but don't get careless keep on your toes and check your corners, and DeLong grab that Ranger's tags, move out!"

The Platoon quickly dispersed and moved into the city's entertainment district full of shops and expensive hotels.

* * *

**Entertainment District North 2020 Hours**

Private First Class Ricardo Flores sprinted down the street as fast he could, he had been doing this for almost five straight minutes and his lungs along with his legs burned and screamed in protest to these actions. However, he was not about to stop and neither was anyone else in his company going to as a Wraith and an entire Covenant platoon was hot on their heels and had torn apart any man they caught.

Flores cursed himself in his mind. why did he join the Colonial Militia? To impress his friends in saying that he was a soldier while never having to leave the planet, never having to worry about actually fighting the Covenant. Well that worked out perfectly now his home was burning, his friends had probably been evacuated already and he was going to die in the street as just another casualty on an already enormous list.

The man in front of Flores stumbled and fell to the ground, Ricardo leaped over him and kept on running. There was no time to stop and help him because the moment you slowed down you were already dead. Within a few seconds Ricardo could here the man's screams as he was attacked by brutes, even though everyone could hear it none turned to look back because if they did the guilt would force them to go back, and that was something they couldn't do because they needed to survive, even if it was for just a few more seconds, survival was the only priority.

* * *

**Entertainment District South 2025 Hours**

Rachel and Michelle Douglas were on 1st platoon's left and right flanks as the moved down the road, it was filled with abandoned vehicles and the bodies of civilians that weren't able to escape the Covenant in time and some of the buildings had large holes blown into them. They had already traveled 800 meters toward their objective when Lieutenant Roque motioned for the platoon to halt, he paused for a moment, his thoughts unknown to the rest of the platoon.

"Any idea why we're stopping?" Rachel said to her sister through a private comm channel.

"No clue." Michelle replied. "Keep your eyes open though, chances are something's gonna happen."

As soon as she finished Miguel's voice broadcasted over the platoon's comm.

"Take up positions, rangers, we got friendlies coming in and they've got Covenant hot on their tail."

The group quickly took cover in areas that would protect them as well as give them a point to effectively use their weapons. Rachel climbed up the rubble onto what appeared to be the balcony of a restaurant and pointed her rifle down range.

"Hey sis, if things get to hot around here you stick close to me. Got it?" Michelle said.

"Michelle, are you going to tell me this every time we go on a mission?" Rachel responded.

"Always, Rach."

"You worry too much."

"Here they come watch your fire, weapons tight, only shoot at what you can kill we don't want to hit any of the militia!" Lt. Roque shouted over the radio as a group of about 20 men rounded the corner. "Rachel, Michelle, I want you two to take out as many covenant as you can before they can get into range."

"Roger." they both acknowledged.

The first Covenant to come around the street corner was a brute squad leader wielding a gravity hammer and followed by four other brutes carrying brute shots. As the leader of the pack leapt over a car his head jerked backwards from the high velocity round that pierced through his helmet and into his skull killing it instantly. Rachel fired off two more shots bringing down two of the following gorillas while Michelle took down the rest of the pack. Two more brute squads came around this time their leaders were protected by shields.

"The Militia has reached our line, weapons free Rangers!" Miguel called, his notification was followed by the entire group of Jiralhanae being turned to pulp.

Corporal Rachel Douglas reloaded her SRS99 and took another look down range in time to see a Wraith wheel its way around the building followed by two more brute squads and a Revenant. Rachel quickly shifted herself and took out the driver of the Revenant before it could get any shots off. As the brute slumped over the controls the small Covenant vehicle swerved to its right and ran through two brutes before crashing into the wreckage of several cars.

"Nice kill, sis." Michelle said to her, tauntingly. She then proceeded to kill the wraith's turret man.

"I got this one." Sergeant 1st Class DeLong said over the comm as he fired his M319 grenade launcher, the shell bounced next to the hovering tank before detonating and releasing an electromagnetic pulse disabling it. "One more." he said as he picked up a M41 Rocket launcher and let the two rounds fly, the explosions from the rockets detonated the wraith's internal core destroying the vehicle completely.

"Yeah! That's right we killed you bitches!" Rachel heard someone yell. She looked over her shoulder to see it was one of the militia men, he wasn't much younger than her by the looks of him, Rachel shrugged it off as she ejected the empty magazine from her sniper rifle and placed in another one. She could see the lieutenant speaking with what was left of the militia group's leadership it was a woman whom looked to be in her forties probably a retired soldier that still hung on to the attitude.

Just as their conversation looked as though it was going to end everyone paused as they heard a sonic boom. Rachel looked up just in time to see a Scarab drop from the sky onto the boulevard, it's forward cannon was already charged and brought to bear.

"Rangers take cover, NOW!" The Sergeant yelled over the platoon's comm just as the Scarab fired into a large building. The already damaged structure began to collapse from this extremely punishing blow and debris came down onto the street.

Rachel saw the militia and rangers flee from the road as dust filled the air giving her no visibility, before she could activate her VISR she felt the building she had taken as her vantage point shake as it was struck with debris from the other buildings destruction. Corporal Douglas struggled to get up as what was left of the balcony crumbled beneath her feat, with no alternative she dove into the dust cloud, came down onto the pavement and blacked out.

* * *

Chief Warrant Officer Michelle Douglas sat in a hotel lobby along with several other Rangers including the Lt. and the SFC, she looked around and quickly saw that her sister's ID signature was not among those in the lobby. Michelle approached the rear door to the lobby and stepped outside.

Chief Douglas drew her suppressed M6 from it's holster and pulled her combat knife from its sheath on her boot as she walked through the dust cloud. A large metallic beam crashed its point into the street in front of her, Michelle looked up to see it was the leg of the Scarab as it continued down the road. Several brutes jumped from the craft into the dust cloud that covered the street. Michelle activated her VISR and moved further into the street, she was their to find her sister and not start a fight with some brutes.

Michelle heard a woman scream from the mid-lane of the street, the chief turned to see three brutes tearing into a female ranger as she attempted to keep them away.

_Rachel! _Michelle thought to herself as she charged towards the aliens. She fired three rounds into the first brute that saw her and threw her combat knife into the eye of the nearest gorilla. The third grabbed her by the neck and yanked her off the ground and roared in her face, Michelle pulled a flash bang off of her belt and shoved it into the creatures mouth. When the brute faltered the Chief kicked its chest causing it to release her, as soon as she hit the ground Michelle polarized her VISR and shut of the internal speakers. Three loud detonations went off inside the brute's mouth effectively blowing its jaw from the rest of its head and the large body fell to the ground.

Michelle crawled over to the body of the female ranger and turned the head to face her, it wasn't Rachel but rather PFC Jennifer Hale, she had joined the 3rd Ranger Battalion last month after making it through Ranger School she had a brother-in-law serving in the Marines. CWO Douglas shook her head and grabbed the tags, she picked up her M6 pistol and combat knife and continued into the dust.

* * *

Corporal Rachel Douglas opened her eyes as the ground shook around her, as she looked around she noticed the image fed to her through her helmet was split and even repeated in some places. Her helmets VISR was busted, she removed it from her head and tossed it to the ground, she reached to her side to grab her rifle from the ground. What she picked up had a crushed barrel and shattered scope.

"God dammit." she said to herself, Rachel then pulled out her pistol and walked into the street.

When she walked into the open she tripped over the bodies of a few brutes as well as a Ranger amongst them, as she bent down to check for the tags she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. Rachel's reflexes took over and she attacked, the person moved and dodged the strikes that she sent before coming back with equal speed and bringing Rachel down to her knees.

Rachel's adrenaline came down and noticed it was another Ranger that stood before her, a female. The external speakers clicked on and the person began to talk.

"Rachel its me, calm down!" The figure said. It took Rachel a moment to recognize Michelle through the dust between them. "Come on the rest of the platoons inside."

* * *

Lt. Roque was talking to the platoons medic as he saw his sniper team enter the hotel lobby.

"Sir, these people aren't going to be able to make it to the bridge in their current condition." The medic said.

"Then what can we do?"

"Well if you leave a few Rangers and some healthy militia men I can patch them up here and then move to Rally Point Alpha."

"You'll get what you need Sergeant." Miguel said. "3rd and 4th squads you're staying here as for you militia me half of you are staying with 'em and the rest are to accompany me and my platoon to the East Bridge, we all meet up again at Rally Point Alpha at 2200 hours."

"You ready?" Miguel said as he looked to SFC DeLong

"I'm always ready sir." Samuel responded.

"Good. Platoon, move out!"

* * *

_**Alright people you know the deal favorite, or review provide some feedback you know the usual.  
**_


	9. Reflection

**_Alright I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! (those of you who live in __America anyway) Now here is another chapter in order to apologize for the tardiness of the last one._**

* * *

**HERMES, OLYMPUS SYSTEM**

**AGAPE**

**MARCH 25, 2552**

**2100 HOURS**

**East Bridge**

Empty bullet casings littered the ground around SFC Samuel DeLong's feet and more continued to fall as he continuously fired his M247L machinegun, the body of a brute chieftain fell to the ground and joined several others lying there.

"Vasquez, take your squad and cover the left flank!" the ranger shouted.

"Moving there now, SFC!" A militia man shouted back, as he and four more militia personnel changed their positions.

The LMG clicked empty, Sam reached down and pulled off the drum magazine and placed another one in place. As he pulled the first round on the belt into the chamber he saw a pair of hunters drop in from a phantom and begin to charge their position.

_Merde,_ he thought to himself as he brought up his gun and pulled the trigger sending a hail of lead towards the ogres. The hunters shrugged off the rounds with their thick armor and continued towards them.

"Sanders, I need you to burn that thing!" He yelled to his fellow ranger over the sound of gunfire. SGT Victor Sanders brought up his Spartan Laser with its focus lens already glowing, a second later the weapon discharged and cooked the colony of Lekgolo worms in the first suit of armor bringing the monster down.

The second hunter paused as it saw its bond brother fall, when the body hit the ground the remaining hunter let out a blood chilling roar and aimed it's cannon at the rangers. The large weapon emitted a green glow as it prepared to discharge. DeLong grabbed Sanders and threw him to the ground before diving to the floor himself. The pile of rubble they had been using for cover exploded with the hot pieces showering down on them.

"Sacler Dieu!" DeLong swore to himself. "Lieutenant, Vic and I could use some help over here!"

"I'm getting a militia rocket team into position to take that hunter out now just hang tight DeLong." Roque responded through the radio.

Sam took a peek over what was left of their cover to see that the hunter was now joined by a two squads of elites carrying plasma repeaters.

"Sir, you're gonna have to tell them to haul ass!" He said as he picked up his LMG and began to fire on the incoming Sangheili squads. Next to him Sanders grabbed his own MA37 and began to fire as well.

While the elites took cover the hunter simply charged its cannon for another salvo, just before the cannon discharged two rockets slammed into the monster's back covering the blue alien warriors in bright orange blood.

One of the Sangheili peeked over its cover only to have its head erupt with purple blood as it was hit by a 7.62mm round shot by Rachel whom was now using her sister's DMR. Rachel and Michelle were moving to DeLong and Sanders's position followed by two militia men carrying rocket launchers, apparently they were the rocket team. As they arrived the rest of the elites went for a full charge of their position.

"They must have a death wish!" One militia trooper commented

"Or reinforcements," the other one interjected. "look."

Three more phantoms came in and each dropped two, five man squads of elites each sporting thruster packs. What they were looking at were a platoon size Sangheili Ranger group, the eight foot tall squid faced aliens would be able to easily out maneuver them.

"Lieutenant! Nous avons un probleme!" Samuel yelled into the comm.

"Sam, I need you and your fire team to fall back fifty meters!"

"Sir?"

"Air supports going to do a bombing run, danger close."

"Gotcha, alright everyone fall back short swords are coming in for a strafing run!" With that the entire group double-timed onto the east bridge behind some small barricades. Within a few seconds they could hear the roar of the short swords as they flew overhead quickly followed by several explosions decimating the 30 Sangheili in the street.

"Alright 44th East Bridge is secure cross now." Samuel said over the radio.

"Roger that we're coming across now, thanks for the assist Rangers."

"Oui, c'est tres bien." Samuel finished over the comm, he then took a look at his fire team. The militia troopers were alright but he would rather have career troopers, as for the three rangers with him they were like family.

Sgt Victor Sanders and himself had been in the same unit for nearly five years surviving several tours of duty together, New Llanelli, Troy, and Mamore to name a few. Sanders had saved his ass more than a few times and he had done the same.

The Douglas sisters had both been trained by him during his time as an instructor at the Ranger School on Reach. Even though the two of them had gone through at different times he could tell they were siblings. They both had indomitable determination, extremely deadly in hand-to-hand combat, and he had never seen better snipers in his life save for the one Spartan that he had run into a month ago. He had seen Michelle's fierce devotion and respected that and was able to get them paired in the same company the two together were almost as effective as a Spartan sniper.

Lieutenant Roque was the person that Samuel had felt had grown the most in Alpha company, after being transferred in as the leader of 1st platoon fresh out of the Ranger's officer training Roque was still very green. However, the lieutenant used his training well and always put his men first and that made him trustworthy.

SFC Delong looked over the barricade at the destruction in their wake and could see the Lt. approaching with the small group of militia that he had sent to the left flank earlier, when he reached the others he sent the rest of the militia men to the front of the bridge to keep the perimeter secure at which point he turned to the rangers.

"Alright rangers, we've just going to wait for the 44th to finish crossing and then we'll be heading to Rally Point Alpha and wait for evac." He said, "How are you holding up, Rachel?"

"I'll be fine, sir." Rachel now wore a bandana over her mouth and nose, being the best thing on short notice to keep from breathing in dust, she also wore a radio head-set along with Ranger combat glasses with VISR technology built in.

"Good, I'll contact the _Vigilance_ and let them know we're headed to the rally point, 1SG you contact the captain and inform him we'll be headed to the rendezvous as soon as the tanks pass."

"Yes, sir." Samuel said.

* * *

**2135 Hours**

The group sat and looked on as numerous tanks rolled by them, M808 Scorpions, M-145 Rhinos, SP42 Cobras, and M9 Wolverines. As the vehicles rolled by it comforted DeLong to see the regular Army soldiers riding in on them, now they would be taking over for those "weekend soldiers" of the militia. It really was a glorious site to see the sheer power the that the 44th held, Samuel took off his helmet and lit up a cigar. Just as he took a long drag and had begun to relax the Miguel returned.

"Something's not right, I can't get in touch with the _Vigilance_." He said.

"Do you think we might be getting jammed?" Michelle asked

"I don't think so, DeLong was able to reach Captain Staten, its most likely something else on their side."

Suddenly they all heard the roar of a sonic boom and looked to the sky to see enormous pieces of metal coming down.

"SPACE DEBRIS! GET OFF THE BRIDGE!" Someone shouted, just as one of the pieces splashed down in the river.

Samuel dropped his cigar, grabbed his machine gun, and leaped to his feet. Before he could grab his helmet the bridge shook as it was struck by a large piece of debris, DeLong immediately decided to forget the helmet and headed for the end of the bridge. Sam heard the sound of suspension cables snapping as he ran, next to him a scorpion carrying four additional troops slid off the bridge.

"Squad head into the city avoid stay away from the bridge!" Miguel broadcast over the comm. "DeLong, get the lead out!"

The rest of the squad had already gotten off the bridge, while Delong still had 40 meters. Just as he was within 20 meters of the end the bridge was struck again, just to his right debris slammed into the street collapsing the very ground he ran on. As he began to fall the 1st Sergeant caught site of a thin dangling metal cable, he let go of his LMG and closed his hand around the cable.

Samuel found himself swinging toward the sloped cement that met the street at the top and the beach down at the bottom, he released the cable and collided into the pavement. For a moment it appeared as though he was safe, but then he began to slide down the slope and headed toward the drop off to the beach. As Sam fell off the side he had just enough time to see more of the bridge collapse, as he hit the ground he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and blacked out.

* * *

**Ares Beach **_**east side **_**2155 Hours**

Samuel opened his eyes and could hardly make out the night sky above him, he could barely turn his head to look over to the bridge, the East Bridge had been completely destroyed leaving only its support towers and broken steel cables hanging over the water.

_Well, we won't be getting out that way_, he thought to himself before trying to get up. As he began to move he felt an unbearable pain come over him, Sam looked down at his stomach to see a large metal rod had pierced through his armor and into his stomach.

DeLong cursed his own existence as he lay on the sand, separated, wounded into immobility, and no way to call for help, Samuel knew his life was over. As he lay, he began to look for anything within arm's length to signal someone and what he saw sticking out of the rubble made him freeze.

"Mon Dieu." He said as he stared at a massive ruined bulkhead. In the moonlight the UNSC call-sign was made visible, all the debris that had come down on them was from one ship _Vigilance._

* * *

**_Okay, I don't think I really need to tell you what I would like to see at this point, but just for clarification please leave a review your feedback is important to me.  
_**


	10. Convoy

**_Alright guys I'm sorry I haven't updated in such a long time but I had a real bad last few months. I'll only be able to update these when I have the unhindered opportunity and that is rare but I'll do my best._**

* * *

**HERMES, OLYMPUS SYSTEM**

**AGAPE**

**MARCH 25, 2552**

**2205 HOURS**

Sergeant Major Duvall walked on the sand of the East shore of Agape, he and several other Rangers had managed to escape the destruction of the _Vigilance_ by exiting the ship in SOEIVs while what was left of the crew escaped via the life-boat transports. Duvall seemed to be one of the only ones to land inside the city of Agape, and due to a malfunction with his pod's door it had taken him nearly half an hour to get out. Now that he was moving about Duvall almost felt naked as he only had the time to grab his sidearm during his escape and he hadn't even bothered with his helmet when he jumped into the pod, and thus while he was armored he had no proper protection for his head wearing only the standard issue army patrol cap.

As he continued down the rubble filled shore he came to what was left of the East Bridge, as he gaped at the remains his foot hit something almost causing him to trip. He looked down to see that at his feet was a M247 LMG, it was damaged beyond use due to an indentation that was most likely from the impact of it falling from the bridge, but that wasn't the most concerning thing amongst the rubble as just about ten meters away he could see someone in ranger armor lying on his back in the sand with a long metal pipe protruding from his abdomen.

"Damn," Duvall said as he approached the body of the blonde ranger. He pulled the tags from the man's neck.

**DELONG,**

**SAMUEL**

**737-92-6492 O**

**CATHOLIC**

Duvall placed the tags in a pouch attached to his web belt, from another he pulled out a headset with a small command module attached to it.

"Rally point Bravo," he spoke into the microphone, soon a small waypoint appeared on the command module's HUD.

_Time to start walking. _He thought to himself as he took step after step down the beach.

* * *

**Hercules Boulevard**

Roque and his team sat in the large, half collapsed lobby of a bank, there were destroyed tables, chairs, ATMs, and desks. This was Rally Point Alpha, or what was left of it. Rachel and Sanders were guarding the only accessible opening left for the building while Michelle sat on a couch as she watched the Lieutenant pace around the empty lobby with his helmet in his right hand.

"What time is it now?" He asked anxiously as he paused in a stride.

"22:07, sir." Michelle replied in a deadpan voice, "Two minutes since the last time you asked that question."

"Damn it!" Miguel said as he continued to walk around the room.

"Sir, we need to move." Michelle began, "the rest of the Rangers obviously didn't come here or never made it."

"We still need to wait for DeLong, Chief!" Miguel's voice was raised now. "I don't leave people behind!"

"Lieutenant, the Platoon Sergeant's status pinged KIA ten minutes ago; we can't keep pretending that it was a system malfunction on his suit's readings."

Miguel gritted his teeth, he was about to open his mouth again when he heard Victor speak.

"Sir," the Sergeant said softly, "I get it but we have to move."

Miguel looked up into the depolarized Visor and he could see the somber look on Sander's face.

"Fine," Miguel conceded, "We'll move, but we are going to find the rest of the Platoon. As long as their life signs are still there we are going to work at finding them."

Miguel donned his helmet and brought up a map of the city, on it he could see the tank company was within their range.

"Alright team, the 44th Armored is just half a click North-East of our position we're going to link up with them and figure things out from there. Rachel you've got point, Sanders you bring up the rear."

The team stepped outside and walked in silence until Michelle spoke up.

"Sir we're being hailed on a secure channel." She said.

"Any idea who it is, chief?" Miguel said.

"No, clue Lieutenant."

"This is 2nd Lieutenant Miguel Roque of 3rd Ranger Battalion's Alpha company, identify yourself." he said cautiously through the channel.

"Lieutenant, I am a representative of the UNSC Army Intelligence and Security Command," a female voice responded. "we are in need of you and your squad."

_Great,_ Roque thought to himself. The Army Intelligence and Security Command (or INSCOM) was basically ONI's younger brother, running the same kind of operations, hording secrets, and being just as brutal in their methods, just they are one century younger.

"What for?" Miguel said cautiously.

"The Covenant are moving in on one of our main command facilities in the city center," she said "there are important personnel and sensitive data currently trapped at that location with no way out, you are going to give them one."

"Ma'am with all due respect there are several Ranger teams in this city, why don't you use any others or get the 44th to reinforce that position?"

"The situation in the city has greatly deteriorated, Lieutenant. The remaining forces in the city have been reassigned to civilian defense and evac." the representative countered. "Besides you and your current team are among the highest skilled in covert and unconventional actions, within your company."

"Alright," Miguel said in a defeated tone, "give me the building's location."

"Transmitting them now. There is a tank convoy a few blocks North of your position, if their vector leads close to the city center feel free to link up with them for assistance."

"Yes, ma'am we were headed that way anyway."

"Lieutenant, for the duration of this mission your team will be designated_ Lima_ and we will respond to _Overlord_. How copy?"

Miguel couldn't help but roll his eyes, _Overlord_, it was as though the organization wanted to constantly hammer the fact that they were in charge into every soldiers head even in things as simple as call-signs.

"Lieutenant, do you copy?" Came the voice of the representative again.

"Lima acknowledges," Miguel finally said, "we're moving out now."

"Overlord copies all."

With Rachel at point the squad continued North East off of Hercules Blvd. and towards the tank company. The four of them moved mostly through the back alleys to avoid being spotted by the occasional banshee or phantom passing overhead and eliminated two covenant patrols before coming across their armored allies. The column moved at a slow pace due to all the debris in the road but that didn't stop the heavier tanks from simply rolling over and flattening the numerous small civilian vehicles that sat in the street.

Miguel caught up to a Gremlin Combat-Support-Vehicle and began banging on the side of the armor, someone inside slid open a small window to respond.

"What!" he shouted through the small whole without showing his face.

"Where's your C.O.?" Miguel shouted back.

"Front of the formation, in the Grizzly!" The trooper said before shutting the window again.

Miguel made his way to the front of the formation which was being led by a M808B Scorpion and a M850 Grizzly, he climbed onto the Grizzly and banged on the main hatch. The metal lid opened and produced an irritated looking man with Captain's bars on his helmet.

"For fuck's sake! What do you want?" The man said as he climbed out, he hadn't caught a glimpse of the Ranger until was about halfway out. Once he saw the opaque visor staring back at him silently as if waiting for something his tone changed. "Sorry about that Ranger, my men have been asking me shit all night. What can I do for you?"

"My squad and I are going to the city center," Miguel said, "how far can you take us?" Lieutenant Roque's statement carried a slight undertone, he wasn't asking the captain if he could take his squad he was telling the Captain that they would take them but he wanted to know where their courses would split. Rangers and Hell-jumpers did this sort of thing all the time using their status as spec ops soldiers to intimidate those of higher rank into working with them, and it would have worked here too if he wasn't talking to a UNSC Army Armored corps officer.

"Watch your tone, _Lieutenant,_ remember I am a Captain and I earned my tab while you were still in grade school!" the Captain said through gritted teeth, what Miguel had forgotten was that the Army had a long time practice of sending its Armored Corps officers to Ranger school which made them just as badass as any other Spec ops soldier.

"Yeah, you guys can hitch a ride but I can only take you guys about 80 kilometers." He finished.

"Thanks, and sorry sir." Miguel said slightly embarrassed, he hopped of the top of the Grizzly and went down the line to a Scorpion, where his squad sat on the jump seats over the tanks tracks, as it rolled down the street.

"Okay team we'll be with these guys for about 80 kilometers, so go ahead and get some rest while you can."

"Yes, sir." they all responded, and with that Miguel hopped onto the Scorpion with the help of Sanders.

Michelle crawled over to the other side of the tank to where her sister sat and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, sis, I managed to scrounged this up for you." she said as she pulled a trauma kit from her tactical soft-case. "Here take it."

"Thanks." Rachel said as she opened the pouch and checked the contents. Inside was a biofoam canister, several painkillers of varying strength, a roll of bandages, burn ointment, and two syringes filled with adrenaline.

"Now remember, Rach," Michelle spoke with emphasis. "this is yours. For when you get hit."

"You don't have to tell me that every time, Mitchy." Rachel said clearly annoyed by her sisters overbearing.

"Apparently I do," the older Douglas retorted. "Because you always us your own Trauma kit on someone else."

"That's because I don't get shot, sis. Haven't been shot since I joined up and I don't plan for that to change."

"Just don't push your luck, Rachel." Michelle conceded. "You're all I've got left."

"I know, just stop worrying already." the conversation having ended Michelle returned to her jump-seat on the side of the tank.

"Sergeant, Chief, go ahead and get some sleep, Corporal Douglas and I will take watch for 2 hours" Miguel said over the squad comm.

"You got it, sir." Samuel said as he lay back on the tank.

* * *

**Downtown Agape **

**0115 HOURS**

What would have been no more than an hour trip under normal circumstances was taking about three hours, most highways were destroyed and fallen buildings forced the column to divert several times, CWO Douglas and Sergeant Sanders had taken over for Rachel and Miguel.

"Hey, Chief." Sanders spoke up to Michelle through a private channel.

"What is it Vic?" she responded.

"You were a little harsh with the Lieutenant back there."

"Sergeant, we were and still are in a combat zone, Lieutenant Roque needed to get his focus back where it mattered. I was making sure it got there."

"You're right about where his focus needed to be, Chief," Sanders admitted. "but you didn't need to be so confrontational. We're not as cold as you, Bull."

Michelle chuckled to herself a bit. "Bull, huh? I haven't been called that since before Ranger school."

"Yeah, you and I were the only ones in that class who were had served in the Concordia Garrison."

"Shame that planet got glassed…that Titanium would have been useful for more ships."

"Yeah, that had been my home planet." Sanders said somberly.

"I'm sorry," She said softly. "did your family make it out of there?"

"Most of them did, my father had been a worker at the refining plant that we had fought at back in August of '41."

"Yeah, I remember that battle." she said nostalgically. "That ODST that was using my sniper rifle was really a marksman not a sniper. He wasted too much ammo on vehicles rather than the drivers."

"What was the guy's name again?" Sanders asked.

"I think it was a Sergeant Castillo, I swear to God half the other females in our platoon wanted to fuck the guy." Michelle with a laugh.

"Really? Damn, no wonder I couldn't get a girl the whole time he was around." Sanders said humorously.

"You still can't get a girl, Vic." Michelle joked.

"That's because I don't see many women on a daily basis."

"Keep telling yourself that, Vic."

"Whatever, Bull." Sanders said concluding the conversation.

For the next ten minutes the two of them sat in silence as the armored company rolled on until it came to a split where several more roads leading in the same direction became available, the captain then began to broadcast over the open comm.

"1st platoon you're with me, we are going down the center; 2nd platoon you head four blocks North then follow the street parallel to our own. 3rd I want you to hang back behind us at a minimum distance of 400 meters and make sure no one comes behind us."

Evidently the Scorpion that the squad was riding on was in 1st platoon as it followed the lead Grizzly down the street. The tanks of 2nd platoon disappeared behind the buildings to the right of 1st platoon, each of the buildings had at one point housed corporate offices with glass windows spanning almost the entire outside of the structures. Small portions of the street were had holes as there were several underground tram ways that had caved in.

"Hey, you feel that?" A soldier said.

"Feel what?" Responded another.

"A tremor, you know the ground shaking."

"We've got 20 heavily armored tanks rolling down the street, of course it feels like the ground is shaking, dipshit."

"I know that, asshole. I'm mean something heavier."

"Like what, smartass?"

"SCARABS!" a gunner at the front of the formation yelled as the titanic metal leg crashed into the street coming from around the side of a building about 200 meters from the leading tanks with a second one following close behind.

The tanks closest to the front of the platoons formation opened fire, the 90mm armor piercing Tungsten rounds slammed into the lead walker rocking the giant vehicle. A Wolverine about 20 meters behind the squad's own Scorpion, fired several Argent V missiles over the first Scarab slamming into the top of the second.

"2nd platoon is moving to assist." Came the voice of a Lieutenant over the radio.

"Negative, Lieutenant, you take your platoon and continue on to the objective," the Captain responded. "those civilians need evac and you need to get to them!"

"Yes, sir."

"3rd platoon circle South and flank those bastards!" The Captain transmitted to the other column.

"3rd is Oscar Mike, sir." came the response.

"Vic, wake up the Lieutenant!" Michelle shouted as she moved to her sister, whom had already jumped up with her rifle raised, having been awakened by the booming sounds of several tanks firing their weapons.

"What's going on?" Miguel shouted as he woke up to the sound of explosions. His question didn't require an answer as he witnessed the lead Scarab charging its main cannon. "Lima, dismount!"

Lima team jumped of the tank and took cover on opposite sides of the street as the Scarab's cannon discharged destroying three tanks. Michelle and Rachel crouched behind a small raised plant emplacement on the sidewalk to the left of the tank platoon, Rachel looked across the street and could see Miguel taking cover behind a burned out Cougar AFV while Sanders fired his Spartan Laser at the approaching Covenant walkers.

"Overlord this is, Lima-1, we've been engaged by two scarabs please advise, over!" Miguel shouted over the reserved channel.

"Lima-1, we read you. You and your team need to break off now, over." Overlord replied.

"What about the tank company, ma'am?" Miguel shot back. "They need support!"

"Lieutenant, we will divert two Skyhawks to strafe the Scarabs, in the meantime your team's objective is too important for you be killed on that boulevard." the representative said harshly to him. "You and your team need to continue down the street for 200 meters and then go into the entrance to the underground tram tunnels on the South side of the street. How copy?"

"Lima-1 copies, over and out." He said with gritted teeth. "Lima, on me, let's move!"

Miguel and Victor left cover and crossed to the South side of the street where they were joined by Rachel and Michelle, the four of them sprinted up the street as the another group of tanks fell victim to the Scarab's cannon. After they had gotten about halfway to the tramway entrance the front of the building ahead of them on their left exploded, knocking Miguel on his back as a M850 Grizzly came rolling out of the new hole it had created and fired it's 120mm high velocity cannon.

"This is 3rd platoon we are engaging the enemy!" A voice said over the open channel.

Sergeant Sanders hauled Miguel to his feet as they continued to sprint the last 100 meters, as they began to run down the stairs into the structure trooper who was firing from a nearby position was struck by plasma in the chest.

"M-m-m-m-Medic!" the man screamed as he writhed in pain on the ground. "Medic, someone please!"

Rachel took position at the entrance to cover the rest of the squad as they made their way inside, she was about to head in herself we she caught sight of the trooper screaming on the floor. The man's eyes met her own with a pleading look, Rachel dashed over from her position and grabbed the soldier by the shoulder straps of his armor and dragged into the safety of the tram station closing the metal grated doors behind them.

* * *

_**Okay there you go the latest chapter, as for the ODST Sergeant Castillo all credit for him goes to Casquis for letting me reference his story, if you want to check that out It is titled The Life now with over a hundred chapters with the various adventures of one ODST just trying to get through the war.**_

_**Please leave a review and let me know what you think.  
**_


	11. Session

HERMES,** OLYMPUS SYSTEM**

**AGAPE**

**MARCH 26 2552**

**0120 HOURS**

**Perseus Station**

Michelle aimed her rifle downrange as she cleared the tram platform with Sanders and Lieutenant Roque.

"Clear, right!" Sanders shouted.

"Clear, left!" she returned as Miguel moved to the edge of the platform and checked the tunnel.

"All clear!" came his voice over the squad comm.

Michelle relaxed a little and turned around to see her sister coming down onto the platform with a soldier in a fireman's carry.

"Who the hell is he?" Michelle said, surprised by the addition that her sister had literally picked up.

"Does it matter? He's hit, help me with him!" she said back as she began to place the man on the ground.

"Lieutenant, Sanders, Rachel and I need you back here!" Michelle called over the comm.

"Help me get his armor off sis." Rachel said, now completely focused. Michelle pulled her combat knife out of its sheath on her boot and cut through the straps that secured the ballistic armor to the troopers body. Once she pulled that off the man Rachel cut through the secondary Kevlar vest that covered the mans chest.

"Hey, hey, you with us, trooper?" She said in a compassionate voice to the man lying before her.

"Yeah, I'm awake, I'm here." he said through heavy breaths.

"I'm Corporal Rachel Douglas, what about you?" she said, trying to keep the man calm.

"Private Jean-Paul Delacroix." he said looking to her face.

"Jean-Paul, that's an awesome name." Michelle said as she grabbed the sides of the vest. "Look, I need to get this vest off of you but its going to hurt, a lot."

"Why's that?"

"The plasma shot has melted some of the Kevlar and your uniform onto your skin."

"What?!"

"What I want you to do is focus on me and tell me about yourself or your family. Okay?"

"Okay." Jean-Paul said as he prepared himself mentally.

"Alright, one…two…three!" Rachel ripped the vest off Private Delacroix while Michelle moved to hold down the screaming trooper. Rachel tossed the vest to the side and Michelle could see the gore on the fiber armor, it had obviously taken at least three layers of skin with it when her sister removed it.

"Hey, hey, Jean focus on me tell me about your family." Rachel said bringing Delacroix back to them.

"I, uh, have a sister, her name's Chloe." His breathing was more stressed now, he kept trying to look down at his chest but Michelle kept his head facing her sisters face.

"Tell me about her." Rachel urged him as she reached into her trauma kit and pulled out the biofoam canister and poured some onto her hand.

"She's in the Army too, she joined up when I was 14." he began to reminisce, "I haven't heard from her for a while though."

"You'll see her again."

"I trust you."

"Okay this is going to hurt as well just try to bear with me. Okay?"

"Okay."

Rachel began to rub the biofoam on the man's chest, he then shouted several obscenities at the top of his lungs before simply passing out. Rachel continued to work on the man's chest and was beginning to apply the bandages when she was interrupted by her sister's voice.

"Rachel, his pulse is dropping."

"That's normal" she said back, "as the adrenaline subsides his heart rate will come down."

"No, I mean I can't feel a pulse at all!" Michelle pressed.

"What?!" Rachel said as she reached to the man's throat and placed to fingers underneath his jaw line to the left, and just as her sister said there was no discernable pulse.

"Michelle begin CPR!" she said as she pulled an adrenaline syringe out of her trauma kit.

_Stop_

"What's going on!"

"He's going into Cardiac Arrest!"

"Why?!"

_Stop_

"I don't know why, just help me!"

"Alright I gonna inject him! Out of the way!"

"Corporal, calm down!"

"No! This doesn't happen! Not to me!"

_I said STOP!_

* * *

**CYRUS VII**

**HIGHCOM FACILITY DELTA-3, ARIA**

**JUNE 22 2552 **_(present day)_

**0935 HOURS**

The video playback halted and the program ended, allowing Michelle to direct her fierce glare at the therapist that sat in his chair across from her.

"Major Andrews, why do you insist on having me experience that night again?" She said, trying to keep herself contained.

"I told you Lieutenant Douglas, during these sessions you may ignore the formalities, you disregard my rank and express yourself fully. Don't hold back your emotions." Major Andrews said to her; testing her.

"Alright then, dickless. Why do we have to watch this shit?" Michelle spat. "I was there I remember it, you and every higher up who gives a shit have read the file. What is the point?"

"The point, lieutenant, is to gather data to submit an effective psychological evaluation to determine how that night has affected you and whether or not you are fit for duty."

"I'll tell you this, Major, I'm fit for duty because I'm still alive; I'm fit for duty because I'm one of the best snipers in the whole damn UNSC; and I'm fit for duty because I refuse to rest until I've sent every last one of those alien freaks straight to hell."

"Well, I can't say your not dedicated." said Major Andrews, whom was serenely unaffected by Michelle's anger. Being a military psychiatrist he has had soldiers yell at him, cry in front of him, and even seen some that felt nothing at all after all they've been through. "I guess we can end our session here, and I'll allow you to continue serving active duty for now."

"Good, I'll see you later, doc." Michelle quickly left the Majors office and hurried down the hall to the building's lobby where a female receptionist sat behind a desk. The insignia on her uniform marked her rank as a Specialist.

"Hey, E-4, I'm finished with my session." She said as she approached. "I'll be needing my time stamped verification card."

"Service ID?" the specialist said with out looking up.

"06423-57901-MD."

"Here you are, Lieutenant, and may you never have to walk through those doors and into this place again." She said with a false cheeriness in her voice, followed by a toothy smile accompanied by a head tilt and wide unblinking eyes. Michelle warily took the verification card from the specialist and hurried out the door, thoroughly creeped out.

Michelle looked down at her watch, 09:50, she still had two hours before she had to meet up with Captain Sepulveda for reassignment. Michelle stood on the sidewalk outside the psych hospital and thought about her options; she could simply head back to her quarters and take a nap, she could go to the firing range and keep her skills sharp, or she could go to the gym on base and see just how much stronger her augmentations have made her.

She finally decided against the nap but would take up the other two choices in order to get something productive done. Michelle turned toward the north end of the base and started walking.

* * *

**PLANETARY ORBIT, CYRUS VII**

**UNSC ARMY CRUISER: **_**NAZARETH**_

**JUNE 22 2552**

**1000 HOURS**

**Cryo Bay**

Sergeant Alexander Grayson opened his eyes as the door of his cryo pod opened up, he immediately felt his stomach heave; making him double over and fall out of the pod onto his hands and knees. Grayson vomited onto the floor and saw the anti-freeze fluid that he had swallowed prior to entering his pod get sucked down a drain made for the expressed purposed of catching that fluid.

As Grayson stood up he could see other soldiers and crew members stumbling out of their pods and gathering themselves. Grayson opened his locker, that sat directly to the left of his pod, and retrieved his fatigues and got dressed. He exited the cryo bay and headed for the mess hall, he needed something in his stomach and also wanted to get the horrible taste of the anti-freeze out of his mouth.

"Hey Alex, wait up!" a voice called from behind. Grayson turned around to see Kahn jogging over to meet up with him.

"Hey man, I didn't really get to talk to you after the mission back on Seraphim VII." Kahn said to his squad mate. "Are you okay man? I mean you were closer to Mike than the rest of us."

"I'll be fine, Ezra." Alex said back.

"Well I'm gonna stick with you until you have convinced me of that."

"Are you sure its because you care or are you trying to put off Latrine duty for as long as possible."

Kahn gave Grayson a faux _I can't believe you just said that_ look.

"I'm shocked that you would say such a thing!" He said in wonderfully bad accented voice. "To suggest that I, Sergeant Ezra Kahn of the UNSC Army SOCOM, would use the grieving state of my squad mate, and one of my closest friends, as an excuse to neglect my duties. Why that's just plain Boulder-dash!"

"Although, it's exactly what your doing."

"And its exactly what I am doing, yes." Said Kahn, finally dropping the joke accent. "But in all seriousness I do care, and so does the rest of the squad. So you can talk to us at any time man, we're here for you."

"Gotcha man, I'll try to stay optimistic." Grayson said before Kahn took off again.

Grayson made his way to the mess hall and received his plate of nutritional sludge. He sighed as he looked down at his plate, the sludge had a very strange consistency to it and was absolutely pale white, the soldiers around Grayson made all kinds of interesting faces as they tried to stomach the substance. Grayson took his spoon and scooped up a large amount of sludge and put it into his mouth. while the stuff tasted like processed shit, it was a T-bone steak compared to the taste of the anti-freeze

After finishing his "meal," Grayson made his way to his quarters and shut the door. once inside he dropped to the ground and did one hundred push-ups followed by an equal number of sit ups. He had always felt extremely stiff when coming out of cryo and the exercise helped him loosen up.

"Good morning, Sergeant Grayson." Gabrielle's voice said to him through the intercom speaker in the room.

"Yeah, good morning to you, too, Gabby." Grayson said as he stood up from the floor and wiped a small amount of sweat from his forehead. "What's up?"

"I wanted to let you know that we have just been cleared so troopers are now authorized to go to the planet's surface."

"Thanks, Gabby. Anything else?"

"Your squad mates are waiting for you in the hangar bay and are ready to head to the surface as soon as you get there."

"What's the local time at the base that we'll be landing at?" Grayson said as he packed a small bag with a few clothes and then grabbed his wallet and phone.

"10:45, Sergeant, the weather is rather cloudy and cool today as well so I suggest you bring a coat, you wouldn't want to catch a cold."

"Okay, mom." Grayson said mockingly.

"And make sure you brush your teeth and put on clean underwear everyday!" Gabrielle shouted back to him as he left the room.

Grayson entered the hangar bay and just as Gabrielle said there was the rest of the squad sitting there in front of a Pelican dropship each with their own bag of luggage.

"Hey there, big guy." Jacobs said as Grayson approached. "You ready to go groundside and let off some steam."

"Hell, I know I am!" Kahn said before Grayson could answer, this of course got him a glare from Jacobs.

"Well, I would prefer it if we all had a drink for Jones somewhere." Grayson said. Both Kahn and Jacobs fell silent at this and nodded their heads.

"I agree completely," Said Captain Anderson. "but it will have to wait. At least for a couple hours. When we get groundside you guys can do whatever you want just don't leave the base, we're going to be meeting with a few people a 12:00. Alright?"

"Yes, sir." they all said.

"Good, now lets go." Captain Anderson climbed into the Pelican and sat in the seat closest to the troop bay door on the left of the craft. The rest of the squad took seats in positions that they would normally prefer if they were going to jump into a hostile zone. _Geez this is a little awkward, _Anderson thought to himself as he saw the seating that his men chose.

The craft's rear door closed and the section of hangar that it sat in was isolated as it took off from the _Nazareth_.

"Good morning, gentleman," Came the cheery voice of a woman. "Thank you for flying UNSC Army Airways. I'm your pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jessica Maddow, and I'll be taking you to the city of Aria where it is now 10:50. The weather is rather cold today so I hope that you brought coats. The emergency exit is located behind you and in the event that you need to use it, were all fucked anyway." She said, keeping her voice as cheerful as when she started.

"Well isn't she peachy." Kahn said slyly.

"Wake me when we land." Said Jacobs, "I'll be in my happy place if you need me."

* * *

**CYRUS VII**

**HIGHCOM FACILITY DELTA-3, ARIA**

**JUNE 22 2552**

**1100 HOURS**

**Gym**

Michelle's fists slammed into the punching bag over and over again, she punched and kicked the bag as it swayed around in several directions. She had been in the gym for half an hour venting her anger into the heavy bag in front of her, her hands had begun to bleed and it was starting to show through the gauze she had wrapped around her hands. Michelle just couldn't get the thought of the session out of her head and the more she tried the angrier she got. Michelle continued her onslaught on the poor defenseless bag until she had no more energy to do so; her arms and legs burned, the bag in front of her drooped and swayed from the abuse that it took, and she was drenched in sweat.

Michelle unwrapped the gauze on her hands and headed into the showers. She stood under the faucet and turned it on, the water flowed down her body and soothed her bleeding hands. She was alone in the showers with no one to bother her, Michelle put her back to the wall and let herself sank to the ground. Michelle placed her elbows on her knees and lowered her head, she had only about fifteen minutes before she had to meet up with Captain Sepulveda, but for now she just wanted to sit there under the flow of water and forget everything.

* * *

**_Hey everyone, it has been a very long time since I updated this fic but hopefully that won't be the case anymore so fingers crossed._**

**_Also credit for the character Chloe Delacroix goes to casquis and his fic The Life, check it out.  
_**

**_Hooah,  
_**

**_-Alex Hawk  
_**


End file.
